Phil Taylor was awarded the Etruria Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Award in Stoke-on-Trent today, to honour his darting achievements and services to the city.

The 16-Time World Champion was presented with the accolade at the Rotary club’s annual Christmas breakfast meeting, hosted at the Moathouse hotel.

Taylor was presented with a gold pin and a certificate by district governor Richard Green, after being invited to the event as the guest of honour.

Taylor is only the second individual to receive this award, following in the footsteps of footballing great Sir Stanley Matthews.

‘The Power’ expressed his delight and pride in being acknowledged in the same manner as the former Stoke City legend.

Taylor admitted: “It’s a big honour for me, really nice. I hadn’t realised I would be the only one other than Sir Stan and it’s really very nice of them to think of me in this way.

“It’s very humbling. You’re stuck in your little practice room doing this, that and the other and you don’t realise that these people even know who you are,” the 55-year-old added.

Taylor also spoke of his admiration for the footballing great, and reminisced about their previous exchanges.

Phil claimed: “I met Stan a lot of times and I got to know him but I never found out if he was a darts fan. He loved football and he loved his sport. I never got a chance to play him, which would have been nice.”

Taylor, currently ranked 3rd in the world, will begin his assault for a 17th World Championship crown on Saturday 19th December, when he takes on the winner of the preliminary clash between Keita Ono v Alex Tagarao.

In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, Taylor highlighted the magnitude of the World Championships, and discussed his preparations for the ‘big one’ at Alexandra Palace.

Taylor stated: “The worlds is the biggest, you can’t get bigger than that. If you win the worlds, that’s everything. You’ve either got the motivation or you haven’t, if you can’t get motivated then you shouldn’t be in the thing.”

“I’ve got two weeks off to get myself ready. It’s been three years since my last one, so I’ll be in with a shout, trust me. It does help having a break because you can get some rest in. It’s been a hectic year. But I’ll be ready,” he added.